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UPDATED: Key Bridge Protesters Disperse After Peaceful March

by ARLnow.com | November 17, 2011 at 3:56 pm | 10,900 views | 208 Comments

Update at 5:55 p.m. — The few protesters who made it to the Virginia side of the Key Bridge were “pretty low-key,” says Arlington County police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal. No arrests were made and no injuries were reported. A small group of young protesters wearing anarchist symbols and bandanas over their faces had a brief but peaceful confrontation with Arlington police that ended with the group crossing back into D.C.

Update at 4:50 p.m. — After a peaceful occupation of one of the bridge’s sidewalks, protesters have largely dispersed. Traffic on the Key Bridge is currently light and unobstructed.

Earlier: Several dozen Arlington County police officers in riot gear are stationed on the Virginia side of the Key Bridge, waiting to see if protesters from the Occupy D.C. movement decide to cross.

The heavy police presence on the Rosslyn side of the Potomac is accompanied by the presence of D.C. police mid-span and on the Georgetown side, and a U.S. Park Police helicopter overhead.

A couple hundred protesters are said to be marching in the District, compared to just over a dozen ‘Occupy NoVA’ demonstrators — mostly Verizon CWA union members — who marched down Wilson Boulevard around 3:00 this afternoon.

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Brandon

Riot gear? Really?
- Really
  
  They don’t get to wear it that often, let them enjoy it. Tomorrow they’ll be back to escorting neighborhood parades and doing bank robbery paperwork.
  - DarkHeart
    
    ACPD has what looked to be some kind of Armored Personnel Carrier that was on site for the Marine Corps Marathon. It is out at Key Bridge today?
    - John Fontain
      
      I like how the protesters have high-gloss, professionally manufactured signs for their anti-corporate protest.
      - drax
        
        Because only big corporations can make signs.
  - GreaterClarendon
    
    I think it is simply a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s Trader Joe’s opening.
    - CourthouseChris
      
      I’m totally going to occupy me some TJ’s peanut-butter-pretzels tomorrow!
  - Edgar99
    
    “bank robbery paperwork” – hehehe – good one.
- UnlimitedCustoms
  
  Looks good to me. Maybe they’ll give these “protesters” a beat down from the “99%.”
  - drax
    
    Hoping for violence against peaceful protesters. You’re so American.
    - UnlimitedCustoms
      
      They aren’t all peaceful. That’s why the police are prepared.
      - Josh S
        
        How do you know? Have you met any of these folks? Are you aware of any of them threatening violence? DO any of them have a criminal record? Were there any arrests for violence among them yesterday?
      - Quoth the Raven
        
        I think it’s a fair assumption that there could be violence, based on what’s happened in other parts of the country with similar “Occupy” events. The police should be, and were, prepared. What’s wrong with that? If something happened, and the police weren’t able to adequately respond, we’d all be calling for their heads claiming they weren’t prepared.
        
        They didn’t break up or stop the demonstration, which ended up being peaceful and law-abiding. They just stood there. So it’s really a win-win.
      - Josh S
        
        Well, I think the mere sight of them in their overbearing and threatening presence is a bit of a loss to society as a whole, but that’s just me…..
- UnlimitedCustoms
  
  Maybe the Statties will join to keep them out of the Commonwealth.
Corey

Absurd, absurd overreaction. Another one for that file: the Waterview building on Lynn Street is “locked down”, staff have to show IDs to enter and exit.
- R. Griffon
  
  That’s nothing. Reports say that NYPD are now requiring ID for people to walk along the PUBLIC sidewalk near some subway stations.
  
  “Papers please…”
  - Thes
    
    I really hope that’s not true. What do they do if someone doesn’t have ID? Tell them they’re not allowed on the sidewalk? What do they do if someone DOES have ID? Write down the info? Is it just raw intimidation? Again, I hope that’s just a bad rumor.
    - R. Griffon
      
      Nope. Not a rumor. Found the video here, recorded earlier today. Go to 43:00:
      
      http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18573661
      
      Police blocking PUBLIC sidewalks, allowing people to pass through only if they have ID. Even CORPORATE ID. Sooooooo illegal.
      
      Our rights are fading fast. And what’s the most sad/ironic, is that conservatives who love to proclaim their love for the Constitution are dead silent about it as far as I can tell. Not that I should be surprised. I mean, you don’t hear them crying about the Patriot Act, or even torture for that matter.
      
      Al Qaeda is no threat to your rights. Your government is.
      - SomeGuy
        
        Actually, this sort of thing happens quite often. For example, the night Obama dined at Liberty Tavern, I was not allowed to cross a certain perimeter, which made part of a public sidewalk temporarily off limits. The Clarendon Cup bicycle race, as another example, prevents me from driving on certain public streets during the race. Marine Corps Marathon did the same thing.
        
        Thus, there are plenty of times when your use of public streets and walkways is limited in this fashion.
      - Boris Badanov
        
        I’ve never been asked for ID during the Clarendon Cup or the Marine Corp Marathon
      - SomeGuy
        
        If you had attempted so, say, drive on the MCM course or ride on the Clarendon Cup course, I’m sure you’d have been asked to verify your authoritization to do so.
      - Thes
        
        While I do mind streets being blocked of to everyone for a specific purpose, at least that can be justified as having some reason behind it (otherwise, you couldn’t have a bike race).
        
        I much more mind the idea of “checking IDs” before people can walk down the street. Because it actually *serves no purpose*, except to intimidate. Unless they are writing down the names of who is using the street, in which case, it’s even worse.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        It’s the conservatives that are telling the police to violate people’s rights; really? Do you mean all those conservatives that run NY City? Because last I checked, NY City was a liberal enclave. In fact, so is Arlington and DC, who though they needed to show up to a tiny march with riot gear. How about the Rodney King beating in California, yeah, there’s a real conservative state there. How about Seattle, WA, May 10, 2009 when a cop slammed a man’s head against a wall so hard it put him in a coma; is Seattle a conservative city? How about Janet Reno, who was appointed by Bill Clinton and presided over the deaths of 76 Branch Davidians, who were only guilty of buying a lot of weapons and ammunition? Is that the conservatives fault, too? Stop blaming conservatives for every injustice in the world; it just makes you look stupid.
      - drax
        
        All this little discussion does is prove that debates about ideology are pointless. Ideology isn’t a team that you’re a member of.
- Reality
  
  I suppose you are a law enforcement expert… That is personal protective equipment…. there were several NYPD and Atlanta PD Officers injured by these same protestors for your information…. It is shameful the way some Arlingtonians second guess the nationally known experts that keep them safe and protect their right to talk about the “Arlington way”…. Keep believing that there is no one out there that wants to hurt you or take your stuff… Oh yeah… and a terrorist attack would never happen here in Arlington…. You people amaze me…. Oh yeah and by the way I am not a cop….
  - Det. John Kimball.
    
    robble, robble
    
    1) this is arlington, not the same protesters.
    
    2) riot gear generally escalates things more than it protects anyone.
    
    3) this is not terrorism.
    
    4) I’ll have to check the manual but i don’t think riot gear protects you against terrorist acts. feel free to test that tho.
    
    5) ……………………………………………………………… (think we’re even now)
    - ArlingTony
      
      They’re here to occupy Arlington. They’re occupation forces. We must resist their attempts to set up a lice and finger-wiggling based economy like they have in DC and NYC. I hope the ACPD are able to hold them back. Stay strong guys. Don’t give an inch. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow in New Occupanistan.
    - Reality
      
      You really don’t get it do you? And I’m sorry you don’t understand the terrorism example… Go back to sipping your latte in your brown flip flops… You are clearly the kind of person that has to cut on the very people who have committed their lives to protecting you… I wonder what you have to say about our brave troops you ungrateful idiot… or perhaps you are angry at the police because they caught you doing something embarrassing….. Sandusky….
      - Det. John Kimball.
        
        Wow. A little anger?
    - Swag
      
      Don’t feed the (stupidly obvious) trolls.
- Swag
  
  My building (2425 Wilson) closed at 3:00 today (half an hour after the 12 Verizon protesters walked by) because the VPs were worried about traffic.
Alicia

Arlington cops are the worst regardless. But hopefully they’ll leave the people in the wheelchairs alone. Ha. No. But really.
- Chris
  
  Worse than the Stasi, NKVD and/or Schutzstaffel? Not likely.
- Zoning Victim
  
  I’ve lived all up and down the east coast from here to south Florida, and I can assure you that though they are far from perfect, the Arlington County Police Department has some of the best officers out there.
charlie

THIS IS WHY OCCUPY NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

1. The trafficland.com camera on the DC sign of Key Bridge “just happens” to be out. Not witnesses to police brutality, if it were to occur. (see how the dot isn’t lit)

.2 The VA side Camera is straining to see the bridge and all you see are police. Probably more police than protestors.

WAKE UP PEOPLE — we live in a Police State. Citizens aren’t allowed to protest anymore. DISSENT has been STOPPED.

(hey, why can’t I load pictures anymore?)
- Ben
  
  You need to relax. I go about my life every day and don’t worry about this “police state”. i go to work, i come home, and i enjoy my apartment and the arlington area… without a bunch of losers causing traffic and getting in my way.
  
  i’d like for it to stay that way.
  - Bob
    
    Well said!
    - Josh S
      
      That’s your version of “well said”?
      
      Yikes.
  - Zoning Victim
    
    Well, it’s fairly easy to sit back and not worry about the US becoming a police state, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. This isn’t really a situation that garners this type of reaction, but there are signs of the police state all over this country. The FBI now serves all arrest warrants like they’re taking down Al Capone, and so do many police departments. One man and his family were terrorized by the SWAT team bashing down their door with a battering ram. They were arrested and cuffed; illegally detained on their lawn for hours over unpaid child support, and guess what? It was the wrong man.
    - drax
      
      Yeah, there are urban legends all over the place. Often they aren’t actually true though.
      
      The one you’re spreading, in which you apparently got the false facts wrong, was actually about student loans, not child support. Only it wasn’t about student loans – that was simply a false rumor that was debunked long ago.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Yeah, sorry, it was over a student loan; that makes it all better.
        
        Please provide a source that debunked it “long-ago” since I just heard the report again a few weeks ago and it was still supposedly over a student loan.
        
        Is there any case where it’s okay for a paramilitary unit of a police department to bash through the door of an innocent person and hold them and their family at gunpoint? Are police brutality and the militarization of the police really an “urban myth” in your opinion, or is this just more of your incessant needling over trivial facts?
  - cyclist
    
    “i go to work, i come home, and i enjoy my apartment and the arlington area… without a bunch of losers causing traffic and getting in my way.”
    
    That’s how I think about it every day!
- ArlingtonChick
  
  If we were in a police state those tents in DC would have been trashed months ago.
  
  We lose more privacy when we fly in a plane than we do participating in protests in the city.
- methinks
  
  that someone is a sh*t-stirrer.
- drax
  
  So the protest that happened today without any police interference didn’t happen today?
- Zoning Victim
  
  You’re against a police state, but you’re upset that camera isn’t working? I always thought the whole “big brother” camera thing was part of the police state.
  - Josh S
    
    Oo – Victim actually makes a good point! Color me shocked!
  - drax
    
    Yeah, it’s an irony – cameras everywhere are actually protecting us from the police state by catching police brutality. Oh well.
    - Josh S
      
      Well, I’m not sure we are being protected from police brutality. Much of the brutality projected onto the OWS occupiers around the country has been captured, but as far as I know, only the UC Davis guy was even “put on leave.” Which means he’ll be back at the job in a few weeks, laughing about it in the locker room with his mates.
      (If ever there was a time for “an eye for an eye” justice, this is it. Dude needs to be pepper sprayed from point blank range while doing nothing but sitting on the ground…..)
      - drax
        
        I didn’t mean ALL brutality was caught on camera.
http://wanderinghat.com Kyle

Not sure why everyone’s alarmed by the physical presence of law enforcement when they bring their tools to the job. Things get out of hand, oh wait, Jerry forgot all the riot shields at the station, and now unemployed white people are throwing things at us…. JERRY!!!
- CB
  
  Agreed. They are wearing that gear to protect themselves. Just like you and I, they are not working 24/7 and have just as much of a right to return home to their families in one piece. Since they are standing outside prepared to deal with violence (albeit a low chance of that today), I am okay with them wearing whatever they need to wear. It’s not me out there, and if it was, I’d probably wear the same thing if it kept me safe.
- Ballstonian
  
  This is what happened in Berkley:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=buovLQ9qyWQ
BC

Calm down guys. I think they anticipated more than 8 overweight CWA rejects would make up the movement. I agree with the earlier post – let them enjoy their riot gear.
- brendan
  
  updated photo from the scene — http://flic.kr/p/aFAbwk
Lou

What’s in those ominous looking bags strapped to their left leg? Gas masks I hope.
D

I would appreciate if they could occupy a job…standing around doesn’t create work or infrastructure. I think police have to protect themselves as protesters in NY were attacking police. And my buildings on lock down and I like it.

I am the 1%
- Corey
  
  It takes a special kind of authoritarian to LIKE being locked down.
- chipotle_addict
  
  Are you kidding? Look at all those cops keeping busy because of the protest. That is job creation right there.
- drax
  
  Do you create work or infrastructure, D?
  - Josh S
    
    Ha! Ha! Ha!
    oh boy! stop it!
    Sob! sob! sob!
ArlingtonNative

Agreed – only positive outcome of the Occupy Nova movement … the ACPD finally get to dust-off and try on their riot gear.
I did get a chuckle out of the Plasti-Cuffs on their hips.
Ya don’t need cuffs to get the ex-Verizon hacks to jail, just call “coffee-break” and they’ll shuffle right into the lock-up!
brendan

Must be another squirrel fight.

slightly more serious, pretty stupid move by ACPD. I think that riot gear escalates situations, eliminating any perceived benefit of the added protection it offers. Second, why the hell? How much is this gross overuse of manpower costing the county?
- Chris
  
  I freak’n love squirrel fights.
- Sam
  
  Really? So these Occupy folks are so unable to manage their behavior that the sight of police in riot gear would provoke them?
  
  Looks like you and other with the same thought process just justified why the police SHOULD be in riot gear – since it seems like they’re in their regular working gear with helmets, I hope they have the real riot gear ready just in case the boneheads that can’t control themselves when they see something they don’t like lose control.
- Swag
  
  For every person outraged over the waste of money for having unneeded, over-equipped cops there, there’d be five people pissed off if s— went crazy and there weren’t any/enough cops there. Additionally, I’m sure some idiots would sue the city if they got hurt by protesters and claim that their injuries would have been prevented if there had been adequate police presence.
  
  These mayors (with the help of DHS) are closing down the camps not because of health/sanitation, not because of the protesters’ message, but because their cities’ economies are shit and the police overtime is costing them a fortune.
  
  As long as the police don’t act like total dicks (as we’ve seen in NYC with the whole “wrapping people in a big net so they’re easier to pepper spray,” or UC Berkley with their “gentle prodding” of students with their nightsticks, or Oakland where they’ve gone full-retard with their hitting a guy in the head with a launched tear gas canister, then gassing the people trying to help him, or pepper-spraying kids and elderly, or shooting anyone with a video camera, etc) the people (generally) won’t be dicks.
brendan

btw – this post reminds me, bring back the image comments!
Jim

I hope they shoot the occupy jerks. And anyone who posts on this board in support of the jerks.
- Jim
  
  I give them my full support!
- drax
  
  This comment is pathetic and should be removed.
  - Zoning Victim
    
    So you’re a liberal for censorship?
    - drax
      
      This is a private, moderated forum, ZV.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        It’s still censorship. The fact that it’s legal doesn’t change the fact that censorship should, and probably does, run counter to your beliefs. So the guy popped off and said something you don’t like. It’s a public board, why call for censorship just because you don’t like what he has to say or how he expresses himself?
      - drax
        
        Stop it.
        
        You don’t know what my beliefs are. I believe that a private forum owner can and should censor certain things. That is entirely different from government censorship. It’s his board, and he offers it for use to the public partly to attract readers of his blog, and to keep it a good product for his readers, he moderates it.
        
        Give up this nonsense.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Okay, so you’re for censorship. Haha
      - drax
        
        I’m for the right of the owners of private property, like a website, to control what is posted on it.
        
        I’m not for government censorship.
        
        Pretending to be too stupid to understand the difference only makes you look dumb, not me.
  - Josh S
    
    The guy is psychopathic. He needs help – isolation would just make things worse…..
Voice of Reason

According to WTOP, the protest size is arguably smaller in number than the average Georgetown Cupcake line.

Can we please stop giving this movement the time of day? Maybe it will go away.
- Ballstonia
  
  Agreed. There will always be a few dozen losers in the city with nothing better to do than camp out, march around, and complain about people who are more successful than they are. We don’t need to validate them with minute-by-minute media coverage.
Brandon

Better they should be standing around doing nothing than botching a no-knock raid and killing innocent civilians, I suppose

The militarization of American police departments is nothing to dismiss with bad jokes. It kills innocent people.
Chris

Maybe they should march by the Arlington County Employment Office.
- brendan
  
  hah.
Newtdog73

Tear Gas the hell out of the losers!
- HailTo..
  
  Hey now! Give the Redskins a chance. It’s only a 5 game losing streak.
  - Nice
    
    +1
Occupy everything

Occupy! Occupy to your hearts content! Occupy the streets, the malls, the white house and congress! Change my not happen overnight, but it can happen in time! Occupy everything, but most of all, remember to occupy peace as well.
- Voice of Reason
  
  Be open minded, but not so open minded that your brain falls out.
  
  What are you talking about?
- Clizzledizzle
  
  I am from the resistance, I do not like occupations. We will resist the 99%.
- drax
  
  Occupy Uranus!
Police Officer E. Cartman

“Respect my authoritah!”
- Monty Burns (0.01% and proud)
  
  Release the hounds…
  - Mme. DeFarge
    
    Fetch the tumbrils . . .
Clarendon Cruiser

Can they occupy my desk so I don’t have to work?
brendan

Here’s why they’re in riot gear…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeinthedistrict/6355137549/in/photostream
- Zoning Victim
  
  Haha, I thought you said crossing the streams was bad.
Karl Rove

Did they bring out the riot gear for the teabagger events? Just wondering…
- Hattie McDaniel
  
  Prolly not; the teabaggers carry guns.
- Ballstonia
  
  I don’t recall the Tea Party people threatening to shut down various parts of the city, so no.
  - tea bags
    
    no–just to shut down the entire government
    - teabagger
      
      not the entire government, just most of it.
      - drax
        
        Close enough.
      - jack
        
        They certainly don’t want to shut down the part that sends them their monthly checks.
      - drax
        
        Keep the government out of my Medicare!
      - drax
        
        It was hilarious watching the teabaggers take Amtrak to their rallies.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        “It was hilarious watching the teabaggers take Amtrak to their rallies.”
        
        Why? Are you suggesting that since the government is subsidizing railroads that they shouldn’t take a train to participate in the political process? That makes very little sense.
      - Carl
        
        The tea party critics like to pretend that the tea party is against all government spending, so anytime the tea party uses something the government invests in, they start pointing their fingers. The tea party is not against 99% of what people think they are, which is where the actual hilarity ensues when the critics look like idiots.
      - Josh S
        
        Oh, Jeez. Sorry, Victim, but you lose your recently earned “reasonable comment” stripe.
        
        Try not to be willfully dense again, m’kay?
      - drax
        
        It’s hilarious watching Zoning Victim not get it either.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Mkay Mr. Mackay; perhaps I stayed up too late watching football last night, because I really don’t get it. If it’s not about the subsidy thing, which is nonsensical since everyone would just be paying what it actually costs to run the train, then what is it? I’m not exactly a train historian (for lack of a better term), so perhaps I’m missing something.
        
        And I have a lot of “reasonable comments,” you just don’t like the fact that I use them to support a conservative point of view.
      - drax
        
        Tea partiers generally oppose subsidized business ventures like Amtrak. Tea Party dolt Michelle Bachmann led an attempt to shut down Amtrak last year, and most of the tea party Republicans voted for it.
        
        Get it now?
- SomeGuy
  
  How prevalent were the reports of violence at the events you’re asking about? Were there large altercations with law enforcement? How about people setting fires and/or trashing retail establishments?
  
  Those things have happened at “Occupy” events in other cities. I doubt they’ll happen on Key Bridge today though.
  
  And maybe they did have riot gear on hand for those other events you mention. I am not familiar with the “teabagger events” you mention, so I don’t have comment on that.
  - Plenty of Tea Party Violence
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pdwTQ4xA8
    
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20001259-504083.html
    
    http://www.csmonitor.com/…/violence-at-tea-party-rally-bare-knuckle-politics-in-the-streets -
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4BU8pfz2O4
    
    http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/…/tea-party-violence-nationwide-101484
    
    tucsoncitizen.com/three…/the-tea-party-gets-violent-video/
    - SomeGuy
      
      While unacceptable, those links you posted are of isolated incidents involving 2-3 unruly people (sometimes provoked). The nature of uprising I’m referring to is that which is described in articles like this one, in which hordes of people commit vandalism and violence under the “Occupy” banner:
      
      http://www.zimbio.com/Occupy+Wall+Street/articles/jSDYJYD8SvT/occupy+oakland+protest
      “…where bands of demonstrators threw chunks of concrete and metal pipes as well as lit roman candles and firebombs, police said. At least four protesters and several officers were injured.”
      
      And pictures like this one:
      http://www.semissourian.com/photos/15/72/57/1572578-H.jpg
      
      I’ll bet that’s why Arlington PD chose to be prepared. But as I stated above, I didn’t think that would happen here in Arlington, and of course it didn’t.
      - drax
        
        It’s okay when your side does it. As long as it’s “provoked” and not as much. Okay.
      - SomeGuy
        
        I don’t claim a “side,” drax. Nor did I excuse any violence. But nice try at choosing a parenthetical note from my post in your attempt to dismiss my broader contrast of the events. (Did you read the “unacceptable” reference to violence in my original post? I hope it stands out for you better now that it’s in parentheses here.)
      - drax
        
        I figured you’d come back by saying you don’t claim a side. Whatever. You’re playing moral relativity games. Violence is unacceptable period. Can we agree on that without quibbling about how much violence or who started it?
      - SomeGuy
        
        No, drax, I don’t think we can agree.
        
        By attempting to draw binary (vs. relative) comparisons, you’re effectively equating a playground dustup with the battle of Antietam by just calling them all violence. In a sense, they are, but the mindset you’re clinging to is far too simplistic for my taste.
        
        My original post stemmed from a question regarding whether riot gear was present at other rallies. I said why I think ACPD might have chosen to have riot gear on hand at this event, but also stated I didn’t know if the gear was present at other events (since I’d never heard of a “teabagger event”). That’s all.
        
        But again, by your logic, we should probably have police with riot gear on hand at pre-school snack time, because there might be a dispute over Oreos, and really all violence is violence of the exact same degree and consequence, and thus should always warrant an identical response.
        
        Good point.
      - drax
        
        No, you’re playing moral relativity games. You want to excuse violence because it’s “not as bad” or “provoked.”
        
        Sorry, no.
        
        But this is all a silly exercise anyway. We can’t blame the whole group for the actions of a few.
      - SomeGuy
        
        Okay. So you’re standing by the “all violence is equally bad violence with the same consequence argument.” But now that you’re kind of seeing my point, you’re going to backpedal with “let’s not blame the whole group for the actions of a few” argument.
        
        Let’s reiterate some of my points, which you keep trying to contort:
        1) I never blamed anyone. I answered a question about why police might want riot gear handy based on similar events operated under the same “Occupy” banner elsewhere. You’re talking blame. Not me.
        2) I never chose a side. You accused me of doing so because you thought it would bolster your argument. It didn’t.
        3) You tried to equate mob violence (dozens to hundreds of vandals shattering storefronts, setting fires, and attacking police) to the actions of (from a link above) 2 people trying to silence a guy with a megaphone who’s interrupting a speech by shoving him. I don’t condone violence, but I don’t equate those two things, which you clearly do. Fine. They’re “violence,” so feel free to view them in binary as the exact same thing. You’ve gone on record here with that simple mindset by saying that you do equate them. And I can agree to disagree with you on that.
        
        I get your one and only simplistically obvious point: violence is bad. But you are shilling for one side (Occupy), and that’s clear. Whereas, I’m trying to look at a police decision objectively. They wanted riot gear for this group because they see things more as I do than you do. Get over it.
      - drax
        
        “all violence is equally bad violence with the same consequence argument.”
        
        That was never my argument. Maybe you should get my argument before you comment on it.
      - SomeGuy
        
        “You’re playing moral relativity games. Violence is unacceptable period.”
        
        “you’re playing moral relativity games. You want to excuse violence because it’s ‘not as bad’ or ‘provoked.’”
        
        So it’s wrong for me to “play moral relativity games” by drawing distinctions between degrees of violence, but at the same time, you agree there’s a distinction, and your argument is NOT that they’re the same?
        
        Your arguments seem very fluid, drax. Maybe that’s why I don’t “get” them.
      - drax
        
        The issue is not whether there is a distinction, it is relevance.
      - SomeGuy
        
        I guess if you make a totally ambiguous statement, your argument becomes really hard to challenge.
        
        Doesn’t change the fluidity of your prior arguments though. And your original statement that “violence is unacceptable period,” which you tried to get me to agree to, sure sounds like a binary lack of distinction.
        
        However, if we’re talking relevance, then you might agree that 2 people having a spat at a Tea Party rally is, in fact, different from riot behavior. You originally tried to equate their relevance, yes?
      - drax
        
        Two wrongs don’t make a right. You’re momma should have taught you that. Enough already.
      - SomeGuy
        
        You’re the only one who’s wrong here. I never assigned blame nor made accusations followed by childish comebacks (“I figured you’d come back by saying you don’t claim a side. Whatever.”) nor tried to equate “relevance” of two completely different incidents.
        
        You attempted to argue your point solely because you have anti-Tea Party beliefs. You never had a valid argument. You just wanted to take cheap shots at the Tea Party because you disagree with them. Mind you, I don’t advocate for the Tea Party. But I’m happy to call out people who won’t try to see things down the middle.
        
        I hope you’ll accept your mistakes in this discussion and try harder to see things impartially in the future.
      - drax
        
        I didn’t take any cheap shots or bash anybody. You’re confused.
      - SomeGuy
        
        I didn’t say you “bashed” anyone. And let me withdraw “cheap shot.” Rather, you wanted to make the Tea Party participants appear to have committed violence equally “relevant” to the mob violence which has been perpetrated by various Occupy groups.
        
        I assure you I am not confused.
      - drax
        
        “Rather, you wanted to make the Tea Party participants appear to have committed violence equally “relevant” to the mob violence which has been perpetrated by various Occupy groups.”
        
        No, not at all.
        
        See, you are confused.
      - SomeGuy
        
        I’m glad there’s a transcript here to prove me correct.
      - drax
        
        I’m glad too.
      - SomeGuy
        
        Finally we’re on the same page about something.
      - drax
        
        No we’re not!
Angsty

When they were crossing the bridge did they listen to the water still, listen to the causeway?
CourthouseChris

The DC-side traffic camera may be out, but from the VA side everything looks pretty clear:

http://trafficland.com/city/WAS/camera/8248/index.html
NoVapologist

I just passed Occupy Northern Virginia as they were walking past 19th and N. Moore. I guess their occupation is over. I overheard one of them ask another if she wanted to go to Starbucks.

This has been a total non-event. My office overlooks the Key Bridge and the protesters were vastly outnumbered by media and police. Traffic in Rosslyn is much much lighter than a normal day at 4:45PM.
tom smart

Not particularly pertinant, but a colleague said it best when he said police are nothing more than legalized mafia. This colleague grew up in Manhattan and was in the Foreign Service also.

As for the protestors, if they break the law, they deserve what’s coming to them…legally speaking.

One of them kicked my car the other day just because I happen
to be doing well and I drive a new car. She yelled obscenities at me while my 14 year old sat beside me horrified. The APCD essentially said, “what do you want us to do about it?”

I have no problem with protests as long as they follow the law. I grew up in the 60s so I understand.
- Inquiring Mind
  
  if they break the law, they deserve what’s coming to them…legally speaking.
  
  If only that applied to the bankster criminals on Wall Street as well.
  - ArlingtonChick
    
    You’re right. Madoff got off.
    - ArlingtonDuck
      
      Madoff isn’t the one who crashed the economy.
    - teabagger
      
      As did Goldman and Sachs, AIG, every Secretary of the Treasury and President in history.
      
      It’s a fun party and we ain’t invited.
    - Vampire Squid
      
      Poor deluded baby hen. You probably think Martha Stewart was a ‘big fish’.
tom smart

very funny comment about Starbucks. we eat breakfast at the Park Hyatt every Sunday and it was packed with protestors who were lodging there. interesting to say the least.
- Inquiring Mind
  
  interesting to say the least
  
  How so?
  - ArlingtonChick
    
    Because the protesters are supposedly unemployed and unable to stay in a nice hotel because they are the 99% and not the 1%. Aren’t these protests about wealth inequality and anti-capitalist in nature? If so, they should be staying at the Red Roof Inn. Not the Park Hyatt.
    - tom smart
      
      precisely. at best staying in anything but a place where you have to pay for a night’s lodging. at worst, the red roof inn.
    - drax
      
      Who said they were unemployed? Do you really know what this is all about?
      - tom smart
        
        Interesting question. In fact, I don’t think many of the protestors would agree on what it’s about. I just saw a live broadcast from NYC of protestors being interviewed, as well a pan shot of many of the protestor signs, and not one of the protestors with whom they queried offered the same answer, nor were the answers in the most general sense related without a doing a 6 degrees of separation analysis. 1) all men need to be eradicated, 2) women need more bathrooms, 3) we own this concrete 4) I don’t know, I’m just watching 5) ask someone else. Yes, I’m sure you’ll say the network edited it to show only the numbskulls. But they point is, those numbskulls are there with all the protestors.
        
        Anyway, yes, I think I know what it’s supposed to be about. But like so many things in life, there are many people involved because they have nothing better to do with their time. (yes, I’m making an assumption.) And you will say, they don’t have anything better to do with their time because they can’t get a job, right?
        
        Is there something wrong? Of course there is. Dollars run our country. We are a capitalist country. Does there need to be some oversight? Yes, of course. Change the status quo with your vote and hope the new guys/gals have some principles. Or better yet, why don’t you run for office? I’ve been a 1% for a long time and for only one reason, I’ve worked hard long hours, been lucky and made some great friends in life who are great at business. I moved to the DC area many years ago and all I had was a $200 car, my clothes and a $10k/year job with the Feds and an education from a non ivy league school. And now I’m in the 1% and I donate to charity heavily each year because I think I should.
        
        Former Peace Corps Volunteer who made $125/month.
      - drax
        
        “Change the status quo with your vote and hope the new guys/gals have some principles. Or better yet, why don’t you run for office?”
        
        Agree completely.
        
        As for you joining the 1%, that’s great. The problem is that this is extremely difficult today, even if you do work hard. It’s hard to even increase your income at all. Incomes for the bottom 90% haven’t grown in 30 years. So just saying “work hard” isn’t enough any more. People are working hard, yet most are getting nowhere anyway.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Why should incomes for the bottom 90% grow if they’re just doing the same old thing? That non-growth number means they haven’t grown once adjusted for inflation, which means they’re just as well off as they were before. Why do they deserve to get more money for doing the same job? Better yet, how is the income of the 90% supposed to grow, anyway? Once their income grows to a certain point, they automatically leave the 90%.
      - drax
        
        They’re NOT doing just the same old thing. They’re working harder and producing more. Work productivity has grown. Incomes haven’t grown.
      - Josh S
        
        Jeez, did you have decaf this morning or something?
        
        There are one or two additional steps to the analysis. While the bottom 90% have seen their incomes stagnate over the last thirty years, the upper 10% (and especially 1%) have seen enormous growth, even after accounting for inflation. How is that to be expected, or fair? Are those top 1%ers the only ones who are working hard, striving to get ahead? You think that in society only one in one hundred people is doing all the right things? The rest are all losers? Slackers? Idiots? It’s absurd. Of course not. But because the 1% have figured out how to manipulate the levers of power, they have been able to construct a system that rewards them well beyond any sort of reasonable level of compensation for their contributions to society.
      - Charles Darwin
        
        Actually, Josh and drax, I believe that the new 1%ers have learned how to adapt. It’s not about productivity, it’s about learning how to do something new and different and ACTUALLY MAKING THE EFFORT TO DO IT. Not everyone can do that, so not everyone should be rewarded. At my company, the people that continually demonstrate their commitment to always doing or learning more always get a better raise than the ones who are average, and it’s definitely above the cost of living increase.
        So the 100 people who screw on 10 more lug nuts an hour than they did 5 years ago should be rewarded the same as the one guy who figured out that by re-working the entire assembly line would increase EVERYBODY’S productivity by 15%?
      - drax
        
        Hey, Darwin, learn to read!
        
        People ARE doing more. They’re working harder, producing more, all that – but they’re STILL not getting more to show for it.
        
        Get it now?
      - Zoning Victim
        
        No Josh, but I think an extra cup of coffee might have helped out a little. Part of what’s missing here, though, is that people are not more efficient. You can’t make a person more efficient (athletics aside); you can make the process and tools they use more efficient. That efficiency comes at a price, and that cost is paid by the investors, not the employees. It’s actually a lot easier to work in a factory, build a house and do just about anything these days than it was 30 years ago. The only thing that will affect what people get paid is the supply of labor and the value someone places on getting something done.
        
        In other words (and at the risk of sounding like a jerk) the guy who mows my lawn may be able to do it in half the time it would have taken someone 20 years ago, but I don’t care; it’s still only worth $35 to me because I can get someone else to do it for that same amount.
        
        That said, I agree with you about the regulatory climate having been setup to install barriers to competition from new businesses, and I never said that most of our workforce is a bunch of idiot slackers (though some people truly are, obviously). If we remove the barriers to building competitive manufacturing in this country, things will get better. Investing in infrastructure is a temporary fix to a permanent problem.
      - Josh S
        
        Charles -
        
        I believe you may be shining a particularly golden and flattering light on the 1%. Are we to believe the 1% is the cream of the crop, the only humans who have contributed to the betterment of society over the last thirty years? Sure, you may have a few people who have earned their wealth simply via hard work and their own intelligence and gumption. But I suspect there is also quite a bit of plain ol’ cronyism, insider access, nepotism, inheritance and the like.
        
        In any case, the fact remains that wealth is distributed in a very unequal way way in this country – we look more and more like a Third World country all the time. Instead of a dictatorship, it’s a plutocracy – rule by an elite that somehow thinks that they are better than the rest because they alone have the talent and brains and energy to get what they got. It’s arrogance and baloney.
        
        Having spent time in the Peace Corps proves nothing. Anyone can apply to the Peace Corps, even people who are already rich. And it certainly looks good on the resume…..
      - Carl
        
        “In any case, the fact remains that wealth is distributed in a very unequal way way in this country ”
        
        Pure opinion. Show me the metric or some formula that you use to determine what an “equal” distribution of wealth is.
      - Josh S
        
        Damn, Carl – I thought we learned about fractions and parts of a whole way back in grade school.
    - Josh S
      
      Why do you have to go to the extreme? I don’t think occupiers have ever presented themselves as being poor or even unemployed. There is a lot of room in the 99% to include people who stay at Park Hyatts but who still actually have complaints about the system. In fact, I’d allow as how there is even room in the 1% for dissatisfaction about the system. Where you choose to lay your head at night doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what political message you want to express….
  - tom smart
    
    inquiring Mind: as I recall the theme is 99% vs the 1%, as in wealth. so, isnt it a bit ironic that the protestors would be staying in a 5 star hotel?
Allthatglimmersisnotgold

If the cops were not there and this took a turn for the worst like in NYC and they begin tearing up Rossyln, then all of you police haters would say why wasn’t more done by the cops…Heaven forbid a bicyclist on his 5 thousand dollar speed cycle ( who happens to be best friends with Jay Fissete) gets hit by a protester at Lee and Lynn! Im sure you would be crying for the Chief’s resignation.
- Wow
  
  That bike gets $1000 more expensive each time you bring out that tirade!
  - drax
    
    Inflation is rampant.
Laura

Jim,
Your comment is worthless, therefore I hope they shoot you,
- tom smart
  
  hyperbole has a time and a place in any language. unfortunately, what I said wasn’t hyperbole and there are plenty of ex law enforcement types in our prisons. and plenty who haven’t been caught yet just as with any other part of or society. I’ve seen the inequities in law enforcement up front and personal. so the next time you have a critical comment to make, why not put your brain cells to work vs copying and pasting “hyperbole.”. Either you are part of law enforcement, related to someone who is or you really have nothing to say, not sure as I have nothing much to go on with your “worthless” comments. And by the way, most, I suspect, take their job seriously. but as with anything, the bad apples rise to the top. have a good day.
tom smart

which one and why?
Jim

Laura. See below and write on a chalkboard 100 times.

hy·per·bo·le
[hahy-pur-buh-lee]
noun Rhetoric .
1.
obvious and intentional exaggeration.
2.
an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as “to wait an eternity.”
- Det. John Kimball.
  
  who is your daddy and what does he do?
tom smart

I’m impressed that you know how to read and know anything other than monosyballic words.
teabagger

So what exactly are these “Occupy” people for/against? I bet they don’t like teabaggers with shotguns and pistols like myself…which reminds me, I need to re-up on ammo…
- tom smart
  
  it’s supposedly about 99% vs 1%, as in wealth.
  - teabagger
    
    Thanks tom. The 1% are the Bilderbergs and the Goldman and Sachs crew if you ask me…
    - NoVapologist
      
      47% of U.S. senators are in the 1%.
      - teabagger
        
        Politicians are included by default…
    - tom smart
      
      I agree. But some of them, not sure if it’s the majority, feel if you’ve done well in life that you’re a target as well.
      - dk
        
        You know, I don’t think this is it at all. I’m not a member of OWS, and I too am frustrated by their inability to articulate a real message.
        
        But I’m extremely bothered by the concentration of wealth in our country, and if that’s what they are standing for, then I am with them in spirit. What so many of the nay-sayers don’t understand is that you can be perfectly satisfied with your own lot in life and STILL be worried about the distribution of wealth (and opportunity) and the huge and still growing impact of a very few on our political system. I’m nowhere near the 1%, but my household income puts me in the top 15th percentile, so I’ve got plenty and much more than most. I don’t need more. This isn’t about jealousy or greed or wanting something for nothing. It’s about fairness & opportunity, about social justice, and about good government, all of which are being slowly snuffed out.
      - drax
        
        Well put!
        
        I also have no complaints about my wealth, but I sure as hell am worried about the future of my own and my kids’. Like lots of us, a layoff or a serious illness could be financial disaster for me, and my savings isn’t what it ought to be either. What will life be like for my kids?
        
        I want to get somewhere in my career. As I get better and more experienced and more productive, I want more money. Yet incomes are simply not going up past inflation for most of us.
        
        Even if I were super-rich and not worried as much about those things, wealth disparity eventually hurts even the wealthy.
tom smart

inquiring Mind: as I recall the theme is 99% vs the 1%, as in wealth. so, isnt it a bit ironic that the protestors would be staying in a 5 star hotel?
- teabagger
  
  These people need to occupy the next Bilderberg meeting if they want to accomplish anything…
- drax
  
  We don’t know that they are besides an anonymous, unsubstantiated Internet posting from someone who claims to know it second hand.
Terry

Yep, a few people on the sidewalks with signs certainly required Arlington to deploy police in riot gear. Don’t bother with real crime.
CourthouseChris

Anyone know what that hardcore paintball looking gun is? Is that to mark people for arrest?
- Ali
  
  Probably bean bag guns.
- Deshotz
  
  Most likely for pepper balls. Basically they are paintballs filled with pepper (OC) powder that burst on impact. The pepper powder becomes airborne and has similar effects to pepper spray. Pepper balls have a longer range than sprays and have less of problem with blow back on the officers.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_ball
  - Clarendon
    
    Correct. It’s the tactical version of the same device carried by the civilian ‘peppier’…
    
    http://www.luello.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/peppier.jpg
    - CourthouseChris
      
      Sweet, can’t wait to see what the tactical version of the device the fromagier carries looks like.
MC

This rates the most bizarre Arlington story I’ve seen. The idea that we have dozens of riot police in what is one of the richest county in the country. That the potential rioters are a few unionized Verizon workers making many multiples of what poor people make. This particular event trivializes the real local and national challenges that citizens should be thinking about.
- tom smart
  
  yep just demonstrates that anyone and everyone are jumping on the protest bandwagon for whatever reason.
  - huh?
    
    Anyone and everyone? Looks like it was fewer than 12 people. Why do you have so much to say on this thread, anyway?
Carol_R

It could easily have turned into a riot and I lived through a bunch of them when I lived in College Park around the Univerisity of MD. I don’t blame the police for being in riot gear though the riot gear was not full riot gear like that worn after University of MD basketball games in College Park, MD.

While the protesters didn’t block me from driving from DC into Arlington across the Key Bridge – they effectively blocked all cyclists and pedestrians from being able to cross the Key Bridge on the walkways. The Police in my opinion shouldn’t have allowed them to cluster in the walkways on the Key Bridge in the middle of the bridge blocking all pedestrian and cyclist traffic.
- Josh S
  
  How could it easily have turned into a riot?
  Why do you think it could easily have turned into a riot? What evidence or reasonable suspicion do you or anyone have that this could have turned into a riot?
  
  Occupy folks have made various marches here in DC since they set up shop and none have resulted in riots or anything close.
  
  Absent any reasonable suspicion, it may have been overkill to send the officers out in riot gear. (I note that different people here have indicated that perhaps they weren’t actually in riot gear – I didn’t witness it so I don’t know.)
  
  Based on the incredible expressions of hatred here on this forum, I’d say perhaps the Arlington police were more concerned about counter-protesters and the possibility for conflict that may have caused. The protesters have the right to protest but obviously some don’t want them to or have developed hatred toward their message and may have felt compelled to cause violence on otherwise innocent and peaceful marchers. The police have a duty to protect everyone.
Lou

What do the occupiers have planned for today? Just sitting around on their asses doing nothing again?
- drax
  
  Maybe they’ll sit on their asses and post random comments on an internet forum.
  - Lou
    
    I wish they had the stones to post on here and try to explain what they are doing. It would be fun.
    - Josh S
      
      Lou, did it ever occur to you that some of the people posting in the forum may actually have spent time protesting as part of the occupy movement? Or at the very least can easily explain what they are doing?
      
      I’m not sure what kind of stones it necessarily takes to post anonymously on the internet. What, are you going to call them names?
      - Lou
        
        Well, let’s hear from them then. Was it you? Of course, it’s an anonymous forum, so I’m just as likely to assume they are making it up.
        
        That’s where the fun part comes in.
      - drax
        
        Maybe they believe that posting here is a pointless waste of time.
        
        Or maybe they think that if you want to know what they think, there are plenty of opportunities for you that simply require more than sitting around on a forum and waiting and bashing them for not catering to your exact needs and knowing that you’re waiting for them to post.
      - Lou
        
        Well, back to the original question. What are they up to today? You seem to know a lot about them.
      - drax
        
        I don’t know anything about them or what they’re up to. I know about what their concerns are. Maybe you should also think about that instead of where they’ll be next, because that’s the point.
Vik

I don’t see how Arlington being wealthy means people shouldn’t be protesting. Arlington is rich in part because of the military industrial complex and government largess. Finance and militarism have this country by the balls and are among the primary reasons why we’ve been going down the tubes the last few decades. People protesting have every right to be upset. Many of the metrics we used to rank highly on, like socioeconomic mobility, we no longer do, and are dropping fast. Government shares a huge part of the blame, as do private individuals.
- drax
  
  Yes, I think it’s perfectly fine to want to change a system even if you’re on the winning side. It’s just like white people marching from Selma – whites can believe in civil rights for blacks too.
  
  And a smart wealthy person will realize that they might be the next victim of an unsustainable economy.
  - dk
    
    EXACTLY.
    
    What a self-centered people we have become. Is it really only about “me” anymore?
Joshua Yospyn

Great pictures, but maybe you should credit the photographer? Unless they want to remain anonymous, then understandable.
- http://www.arlnow.com ARLnow.com
  
  Thank you. All photos are taken by ARLnow.com staff unless otherwise noted.
will

Were those paintball guns being carried by the police? Surely they were something with a c02 canister…look like tippmans.
maria jpeg

i was there. i overheard a policewoman say to another that there was a robbery going on nearby.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpegz/6359805059/in/photostream
Your Mom

Looks like a bunch of apes who’d rather complain than do any work. Typical.
http://freelolriotpoints.blogspot.com/2012_01_01_archive.html Riot Points

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